Trees add beauty to our landscape, and curb appeal to our homes. They also provide shade to keep us cool and keep our air clean. Naturally, we want to repay all of these favors by ensuring that the trees in our yards stay healthy.

It’s a good idea to check your trees once or twice per year, or more often if you suspect storm damage or disease. We don’t expect you to become a tree expert overnight, but you can learn a lot by examining these three parts of the tree.

Trunk. If the trunk is missing bark, displays obvious signs of fungus, or shows other signs of distress such as deep holes or cracks, your tree could might be damaged or showing signs of a health problem.

Leaves. For most species, leaves should be green and shiny. If they’re dull, yellowed, spotted, or discolored, you should call an expert. Of course, these rules don’t apply if your tree is simply changing colors in the fall.

Canopy. A healthy canopy should be dense. Proper spacing of limbs is a good thing, but if they seem sparse you might have a problem.

Those methods sound fairly elementary, but tree health can become quite complicated. The good news is that you can tell a lot just by taking a few moments to quickly scan the main parts of your tree. Once you spot the obvious signs of a problem, an expert can diagnose your tree and help you decide how to proceed.

Sometimes a tree can be brought back to good health, and sometimes not. But as with human health, early action is always preferable. Give us a call if you suspect a health problem in one of your trees, and we can take a look at it for you. Then together we will decide if treatment, trimming, or removal is the best course of action.